Rubio: Obama Using Gay Marriage to Distract from Failing Economy

The left is using the gay marriage debate as a weapon to divide the country while diverting attention away from President Barack Obama’s failings on the economy, says Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.

“They [Democrats] don’t want to have a debate on marriage or these ideas. What they are saying is if you don’t agree with them you’re a bad person, and that’s usually their default position,” Rubio said in an interview on Laura Ingraham’s radio show Thursday.

“For example, if you don’t agree with their ideas about immigration and immigration reform, you’re anti-immigrant,” he said, according to ABC News. “If you don’t agree with their ideas of how the tax code should be structured, you’re anti-working, you’re for the rich guys and you’re against the working class. So we have to work – we have to understand that’s what their strategy is.

“They immediately go to the, 'Let's label these folks as left undesirable,' for the reasons that you've outlined. So we have to be aware of it and we have to be able to point that out. And we also have truth on our side. We also have facts and figures on our side, and we have to be able to make that compelling argument and not fall into that trap of trying to prove that we're not haters, that we're not trying to overcompensate, either."

Rubio added that marriage is a specific institution defined as between one man and one woman under law.